


How it Feels

by tothestrongones



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death, F/M, Family Loss, Implied/Referenced Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 16:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3856765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothestrongones/pseuds/tothestrongones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say when one twin goes, the other follows with a baited hand holding them to this world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How it Feels

She felt it when her hand shook.

There was a small tremor in the flick of her wrist as a robot shattered into tiny pieces before her eyes followed by a swift punch to the gut. Skidding closer to the machine she swore to protect, her instinct was to look up, to see which one that got close, which one somehow eluded her strike and fought back, but only cracked walls and drifting debris stared back. The rest of the robots weren’t even close to touching her as they steadily recruited more bodies to take her out, but that’s when she knew.

She felt it when her hand shook and suddenly she couldn’t breathe any word but _Pietro_.

They say when one twin goes, the other follows with a baited hand holding them to this world. Her brother was the one to always scoff at any notion of him dying as he stared Death in the eye with defiance. (We don’t leave each other, Wanda. That is who we are.) It happened when they were forced on the streets, (I’m fine, honest) and he’d fight with the men he stole from like he had every right to take their food because _my sister is hungry, she deserves your food just as much as anyone else_.

She didn’t deserve anything more than the rest of the world, but he thought so. He thought so.

Sometimes when Wanda would have horrible nightmares, he’d remind her just what kind of brother he was, what kind of _man_ he’d become. He wouldn’t be like their father or their foster parents who abandoned them after a couple of months when the anxiety got too constricting for her chest. He’d be the provider, the one who would find them a new home, a new purpose. He wouldn’t be like the ravage dogs who stared at her flimsy clothes like they were sizing up their next dinner. Pietro stared but he watched her like she held the stars in the palms of her hand. (Because you're special, Wanda. You've always been special. I don't see how you can't see that for yourself.)

And he’d fight them, too, the dogs and the abusers and the authorities. He’d fight everyone if it meant she could place her head somewhere soft at night without that cranium parasite reminding her that Death enjoyed people like them, the ones without much.

But we have each other, he’d remind her. _You always have me._

Wanda would always have her brother until she didn’t, and her soul ripped straight from her chest because she _knew_. God, she knew what had happened before she even blinked and her blood ran cold, body locked in a sickness she couldn’t shake. Ultron robots ran towards her at full speed, taunting a final fight she couldn’t deliver, couldn’t even fathom fighting—

Because she fought it for him.

She fought it for the chance at living a new life with new opportunities for both of them. Pietro provided, Pietro _sacrificed_ , but this fight, these _Avengers_ — It was her turn to protect him, to use the powers infused into the very core of her being to abolish the evils that had done them wrong. Stark, Ultron, they were all the same and she tried so very hard to take out the lesser of two evils out of the goodness of forgiveness because she fought it for him. That’s why she sent him away, why she let him have the good fight where there wasn’t a sacrifice to be made protecting the core. She’d fight everyone if it meant he could place his head somewhere soft at night without the belief that he needed to sacrifice any longer.

_I can handle this._

_I can handle this._

_I can handle this._

Knees connected with concrete and a wave of red flew from her tired body, eyes as vacant as the void in which he could never come back from. Because when a twin loses the other, they feel it. They feel it in their hands, their veins, until their body shuts down and their mouth goes dry and, in a way, they die alongside with them.

Pietro provided.

Pietro sacrificed.

But it was her turn to protect him and she had failed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not okay over this fucking movie.


End file.
